Undead Backbrain

It’s quite a coup when you get the original actors, all dead, to cameo in your movie about the silent era of Hollywood — without splicing in old footage or engaging in CGI re-constructions.

Director Alex Monty Canawati’s silent, black-and-white biopic, Return to Babylon, is said to have been infiltrated by phantom figures — ghosts, they reckon, of the dead stars that are the subject of the film, which is about assorted scandals in Hollywood at the beginning of the 20th Century.

Much of Return to Babylon — “part mystery, part comedy and part psychological drama” — was filmed on location in the estates of the deceased stars, and lead Jennifer Tilly and other members of the crew began to feel that they were not alone on the sets.

It was only in post-production that Canawati noticed that the film was haunted by odd visual glitches; “several of the stars were ‘replaced’ by images of haunting ghostly apparitions”. Or at least ghostly faces were superimposed over their faces:

The film’s release has been long delayed, and according to IMDB, the reason for the delay was the discovery of the “odd figures, morphing of characters and ghost-like images, etc. in some scenes. These were especially clear in still framing. These were found to be in the original negatives and not in the special effects. The film makers decided the images do not take away from the integrity of the film, thus the release date.” The film is being release this Halloween at the Salem Cinema in Salem, Massachusetts.

As Ken Hulsey, reporting on Monster Island News, puts it: “It seems that many deceased silent movie stars jumped at the chance to once again grace the silver screen!”

Spooky, eh? Whether it’s an unexplained phenomenon or a bit of canny (or uncanny) PR, I like the idea!

See the original story on Monster Island News.

• Source: via Avery.

Unfortunately, this will need no comment for those of us who are writers. And those who aren’t … take note!

• Source: via Cat Sparks

Speaking of cryptozoology, here, just for the hell of it (and for Avery, who found some of them), is a collection of movie trailers featuring the ever popular — and often cute — lake monsters of legend:

Serpent Lake (US-[in production, 2009]; dir. Joel Trujillo)

The Water Horse (US-2007; dir. Jay Russell)

Beyond Loch Ness [aka Loch Ness Terror] (Canada-2007; dir. Paul Ziller)

Birth of a Legend: The Story of the Wawa (US-2007; dir. Steve Wiggins)

Mee-Shee: The Water Giant (Canada-2005; dir. John Henderson)

DreamKeeper (Canada/US-2003; TV; dir. Steve Barron)

Loch Ness (UK/US-1996; dir. John Henderson)

Magic in the Water (Canada/US-1995; dir. Rick Stevenson)

The Loch Ness Horror [aka Nessie] (US-1981; dir. Larry Buchanan)

The Crater Lake Monster (US-1977; dir. William R. Stromberg)

And this is the beginning of Das Wunder von Loch Ness [aka The Secret of Loch Ness] (Germany-2008; dir. Michael Rowitz):

You can go here to see the actual trailer. (Thanks, Avery!)

At Conflux on Sunday, Jack Dann launches Creeping in Reptile Flesh, while the author, both pleased and embarrassed, listens to his words of praise:

And off it goes into the world!

Lots of folk bought it on the day, but you can buy it here.

• Previous post

When I read that Universal Pictures had paid a couple of guys (Adam Cooper and Bill Collage) a large amount of money to write a screenplay for a big budget take on Melville’s classic Moby Dick — arguing for an original approach that would be “loaded with chaos and destruction” — I was momentarily interested.

There has been, of course, several screen versions of the story (if not the actual, rather encyclopedic novel), the best being the 1956 Moby Dick, as directed by John Huston and starring Gregory Peck as the obsessed Captain Ahab.

I argued a while back that this film was in fact a giant monster film in all but genre name, there being several significant indications of this within the script. So a film in which Moby Dick “rampages” through the oceans of the world would certainly have potential, I would have thought.

In this new version the writers are taking a “graphic novel-style” approach which will shift the focus from Ishmael’s famed first-person narration as he recounts Ahab’s obsession with killing the whale that crippled him. The change in perspective, they claim, will allow them to depict Moby Dick’s decimation of other ships prior to its encounter with the Pequod. “We wanted to take a graphic novel sensibility to a classic narrative,” said Collage.

Apparently Ahab will become more “a charismatic leader than a brooding obsessive”. Hmmm.

The film is to be directed by Night Watch and Day Watch director Timur Bekmambetov.

As I said at the start I was momentarily interested in this because I thought the opening of the article was suggesting something original — say a modern-day sequel to Moby Dick, where a descendant of Captain Ahab comes to realise that the Great White Whale is still (supernaturally) alive and has begun a new reign of terror across the oceans of the modern world. Yes, that’s why Moby Dick is white! He’s a ghost!

Okay, just kidding.

The new film’s perspective — a graphic novel take — may be interesting as it seems it will be spinning off to let us watch other ships sink. But I’m rather afraid more sunk ships at the expense of the original’s dramatic centre (Ahab’s obsession) will simply result in turning the film into another big hunk of meaningless eye candy.

But maybe I’m being pessimistic.

I will add that while I admired the visual aspect of Night Watch and Day Watch, I found the narrative flow completely chaotic in both of them. After a while, it got a bit tedious.

So, guys, your new “vision” might not be “your grandfather’s ‘Moby Dick’,” but can we at least have something that is as narratively competent as Huston’s 1956 version, please?

And if you’re going to claim “originality”, can you make sure that “original” doesn’t mean “stupid”?

• Source: BD Horror News via Kaiju Search-Robot Avery

This picture of Takemajin — the giant statue animated to defend the Earth from the terminally weird Gilala in Girara-no Gyakushuu Touyaku Samitto Kiki Ippatsu [lit. Guilala’s Counter Attack: the Touyaku Summit One-Shot Crisis] (Japan, 2008; dir. Minoru Kawasaki) — has hit the blogsphere in the past few days. The character is played by famous actor and personality Kitano Takeshi.

It appears to have gone back to the conceptual drawings that first appeared rather than reflecting the more Takeshi-reminiscent statue that came later.

In a moment of planned synchronicity, Guilala’s Counter Attack: the Touyaku Summit One-Shot Crisis premiered last weekend in Sapporo where the G8 Summit was also being held. The only review that has appeared so far is by a British journalist who was there to cover the Summit and thought it would be a lark to see the film in conjunction with his other duties. His review is packed with all the usual misinformation, artistic prejudice and lack of understanding that blights “appreciation” of the daikaiju eiga genre when it is written about by mainstream critics, so his negativity need not be taken as an accurate reflection on the film. However, if you want to read what he thought, Ken Hulsey of Robo Japan gives it a run.

• Picture source via Kaiju Search-Robot Avery

Serpent Lake (US-2009, directed by Joel Trujillo)

There is a long-running tradition of lake monsters, both in local legend and on film. Deep, dark waters seem to spark the imagination; stories of monstrous aquatic fauna go way back and have surfaced in every part of the world wherever such lakes occur. The Loch Ness Monster is perhaps the best known of them, but there are stories of many others, not least of all in America. Big Dog Inc., JFT Productions and writer director Joel Trujillo are currently filming Serpent Lake, a film that looks at one such US “legend”.

Kaiju Search-Robot Avery (otherwise known as Avery Battles) asked Joel Trujillo about the project and about himself.

… The beginning of my interest in making films was the summer of 1993. That’s when I produced my first movie. I made my dad dress up like a zombie chasing after my uncle….

… Being an indie filmmaker it’s like being in a band. You’re always trying to find the next gig — not necessarily knowing where you’re going but just doing it. I live for the adventure! ….

… The idea for Serpent Lake came from my honeymoon back in June of 2006. I know what you’re about to say! “Honeymoon? Shouldn’t you have been thinking about ‘other things’ during your honeymoon?”….

Read the full interview (with pictures) here.